Today, Monday, all of the USA teams were off, after a successful opening day Sunday for all six USA teams.

We were planning on practicing at 3pm till Diane contacted us with the weather forecast which called for rain in the afternoon. She and her husband Jack were going to hit early, and after reviewing the weather forecast, Susan, Pat and I decided to do the same and arrived at 7am. (Jack and Diane were there at 6:30!).

We thought we’d be bumped before 8am but actually were there for nearly two hours, with the three of us rotating serving on one court and drilling/playing points on the other. After we finished, I tried to find ice for my shoulder. I went to both restaurants on site. One gave me three ice cubes and the other two. I did comment on this to someone working on site and he arranged for ice to be delivered, which is great. Ice is just not as ubiquitous as it is in the USA.

After practicing we went on a shopping expedition. I wanted to find an O2 store to buy a sim card. I selected the closest one on Google Maps and off we went. We ended up in an area near the Cathedral of Ulm (the tallest in Germany).

The SUV I rented felt like a Winnebago in those narrow, crowded streets. Looking for parking we inadvertently went down such a street not realizing it dead ended into a pedestrian only zone. So I had to back up (after first panicking some). Pat was inside the car looking out and Susan was outside directing me. While I was dithering about backing up, a second delivery van parked behind me so I had to navigate passing the van on one side without hitting any of the restaurants tables and concrete low planters on the other side. It took quite a while. Eventually I did get out of the alley on one piece and we saw a parking place not too far away. We parked and a few minutes later went to a machine to get the parking pass (which we had to ask for help…it turns out that the fee for an hour was 1,80 but if you put in more than that all your money was returned because no change is given). Despite paying for the parking we got some sort of ticket! It wasn’t a great driving day, other than we didn’t hit anything or anyone. Here’s a photo of the alley.

It didn’t work out to get a sim card because in Germany you have to show not only your passport but proof of staying in Germany in writing and the contract we have was at the rental house. However, the trip wasn’t a loss because Susan and Pat both got European travel hair dryers and Pat got a curler, and I got some Think brand shoes! We also hit our fourth grocery store of the trip (we’ve been to Aldi, Lidl and Kaufland), a Rewe which was very nice. I even found the Feld Salat I was looking for (lambs lettuce).

We had a second practice at 3pm and did get in about 45 minutes of doubles before it started to rain. At the first drops, Susan was done (she has gut in her racquets and also has California roots…Californians do not play tennis in the rain! We headed back to the house and had dinner (I cooked, anything to get out of doing dishes!).

Tomorrow we play Argentina, the 8th seeds, for a spot in the semis at 8:30 am…warming up about 7:30am! They beat Norway today.